I was driving home from a speaking engagement last week (actually I was fairly zipping along – keeping up with the flow of traffic, of course) when I came to a section of highway where road repair work seems to be interminable – a section where merges and lane endings act as automatic traffic slow-downs, or fender-benders zones for un-observant drivers.

It never ceases to amaze me that there are drivers who continue their open-highway speed in a lane that has clearly been marked with such signs as “Lane ends in 100 feet, merge right”. I’ve seen drivers increase their speed at the appearance of such a sign, perhaps to get ahead of as many cars as possible before merging? Don’t they realize there is a time to slow down?

Life often requires lane changes or detours at the most inconvenient and unexpected times. Lost jobs, sickness or physical injury…